Black Grace

Description

At 19 years old, Neil Ieremia, a New Zealand bank clerk at the time, hit upon a winning multicultural combination when he merged modern dance with South Pacific traditions. Twenty years later this animated amalgamation of Polynesian and contemporary Western dance continues to draw crowds with its power and dynamism. The Black Grace dance company highlights the spiritual nature and ancestral traditions of the Maori, Samoan, and New Zealand cultures through movements both athletic and whimsical, as Ieremia incorporates the indigenous storytelling tradition of "slap dancing"-speaking, singing and clapping hands against bodies-into his choreography. (VS)